We Continue
Resisting
WE DON'T FORGET, WE RESIST
Sta. Lucía del Camino, Oaxaca, December 23rd, 2004
BROTHERS AND SISTERS
In Oaxaca, December 22nd is turning into a day of protests against repression and impunity, as a date that the police forces use to repress all those that search for a better world.
Thus
yesterday we, as we announced cultural activities to not forget the
massacre of our sisters and brothers of Acteal, we were evicted from the
peaceful sit-in that we were maintaining in the central plaza of Oaxaca.
In
spite of the violent eviction, we went out in the afternoon to fulfill our
promise to do the cultural acts because to struggle peacefully so that our
autonomy might be respected, the murderous
paramilitaries might be arrested and there might be a solution to our community
demands is something that we will not fail to do.
In spite of the blows all over our bodies and the theft of our belongings
by the special forces of the state police, AFI and tourist police, yester
starting at 6pm a little more than 100 members of CIPO,
the Chakas collective, Ratas collective and MPR jointly developed a demonstration
on the streets of November 20th, to the León Arborway.
Since
we left, 2 large anti-riot vehicles and 3 white vans monitoring with radio
and using turrets and sirens intimidated us. They numbered more than 200
heavily armed, of the UPOE (special forces) that
surrounded the march at the height of the chocolate shop "el mayordomo"
and left us in no time. The whole operation was directed by José
Manuel Vera Salinas and the state director of the National Institute of
Migration, Daniel Camarena Flores.
We
marched hand in hand and screaming slogans against repression:
"murderous government, you kill peasants" "December 22nd
is not forgotten" "Chiapas is not a base, army out" "Oaxaca
is not a base, army out" "Acteal is not forgotten" "neither
with tanks nor shrapnel will the the CIPO be silenced" "Free the
political prisoners" "We are not all
here, the prisoners are missing"
We
set up in the atrium of the Oaxaca Cathedral, with a newspaper mural and
banners explaining the repression against the indigenous folks. We joined
hands and made a circle to which tens of tourists gathered to inform themselves
of what was happening. The speakers remembered the
repression in Acteal and what happened in Oaxaca by similar facts like the
case of Agua Fría and the recent aggressions toward the NOTICIAS
NEWSPAPER and to the CIPO-RFM.
When
Cesar Chávez arrived with the projection equipment, Vera Salinas
directly threatened Cesar Chávez, Simon Yllescas Manzano, Gabriela
Pérez Gómez, Félix Machuca, among others and ordered
the arrest of Cesar Chávez, but the active and immediate participation
of our comrades, successfully impeded his arbitrary imprisonment and they
were able to bring him to a
safe place. Without a doubt, the taxi in which he traveled was pulled over
and brought by the police to an unknown location. Between the threats that
the police officer spoke: "they are going to shoot your fucking mother"
"they will not escape passing some time in the joint"
and he pointed them out with his finger so that the plain-clothes agents
would film them.
But
the police also attacked foreigners by the hands of the National Institute
of Immigration., given that Daniel Camarena Flores, by orders of the governor
took away three foreigners, threatening to deport them, among themm Mitchell
Cowen Verter, from the USA, because he told them
that no foreigner should see the activities that the CIPO carries out, although
the only thing the foreigners did, like many others, was to see the banners,
reed the mural, ask what happend and receive answers. The idea is to intimidate
all foreigners who are interested to know what is
goin on in Oaxaca. The
event ended at 9pm, at which time we retired peacefully yo the
place, but the police followed us with patrols and motorcycles until Lázaro
Cárdenas square, to film those who participated in and coordinated
the protest.
We will continue to struggle for the freedom of Dolores Villalobos Cuamatzi, Margarita García García, José y Habacuc Cruz Cruz. And we take responsibility for the damages that any member of the CIPO-RFM might suffer and Cesar Chávez in particular.
KINDLY
For the reconstitution and free association of our peoples
For the organizing committee of the CIPO-RFM
GABRIELA PÉREZ GÓMEZ
COMMUNICATIONS
--
Tradution: Dominic DeSiata